Last week was a very long for me, and my overall health took a beating. Of course, I didn't help it any by eating basically crap all week, but it truly was pretty busy.
The beginning of the week started with a weekend of long shopping days, due to my dad's arrival and subsequent departure. While it was fun to spend time with the family, it was a pretty tiring affair. But I got to show my dad my apartment here, and we visited the school and met a few of my teachers. It was pretty fun.
The 31st was of course Halloween, and so I spent most of the day giving out candy, and wrapped it up with the ESS Halloween party. Fun times, but hauling candy and my costume (I did a whole Jason thing from Friday the 13th) was tough work.
The next day was business as usual, and Thursday marked the beginning of a long 3 days. Thursday afternoon was devoted to a rehearsal of the 20th anniversary ceremony for Genkai H.S. Lots of standing and bowing, though the assembly was capped by a special guest speaker, an Olympic Judo champ and Japanese hero, Toshihiko Koga. His speech was inspirational, if a bit on the long side. Friday, which was a national holiday, was in fact a workday for me, with a dress rehearsal and an afternoon of prep work for the ceremony. Saturday, we were at school at 8am for the real deal.
To the credit of all involved, the ceremony went off without a hitch, and the kids really showed their stuff. Many of the diginitaries were impressed by how well manner the kids were. Afterwards, the teachers and other various guests were bussed to nearby Hakozaki, part of what might as well be considered the Greater Fukuoka-city Area. At a swanky looking hotel, we had our reception/enkai. More speeches, made all the better with good food and nomi-houdai beer and spirits (that's all-you-can-drink). I was buzzed by 2pm, and I remained in this state for the next 12 hours.
The enkai ended at around 4pm, and I headed home. By then, I was completely exhausted, but I still had a dinner at the neighbours' apartment, and a karaoke session to go. I almost fell asleep at home, but made it to the neighbour's apartment. There, a nabe (hot pot) dinner, more drinking courtesy of my ALT friend Jon, and by 10:30 or so we were off to karaoke. There, we were met by more ALTs, and a 3 hour drinking, singing, laughing and dancing party ensued. It was fun as all hell, but left my throat raw.
So now it's Sunday evening. Somewhere between yesterday and today, I caught a cold, so I've felt kinda miserable all day. I slept almost all of today (with 2 brief excursions, for food and meds), and luckily, I get tomorrow off for the Friday we had to work last week.
Catching a cold sucks. Nevertheless, A Very Happy 20th Genkai H.S.
